Drafting. I've done a bit of this myself, but I'm wondering about drafting and hills. I see a team drafting their GC guy behind them up some huge climb; does drafting "work" just as well up hills as it does on the flat? Common sense tells me it does, but maybe I just don't get close enough when I'm riding (up hills)?

Team cars. How many of these f*ckers do they have; is it 1 per rider? There seem to be lots.

Can you tell what speed the riders are going at? I find this really frustrating that we don't get an average speed until the finish line.
I was also wondering about hill catagorizations. I realise they used to be based on what gear a Citroen 2CV could perambulate up the hill at, but I believe it's more scientific now, based on the gradient of the climb and the distance ?
I've "raced" (finished) k2 in 7 hours and they had the hills catagorised, are they they same as le Tour catagorisations ? The k2 catagory 4 and 3's were ok, the 2's and 1's are bad, and the HC before Coromandel is just evil , this prompted me to put a MTB cluster on my road bike (I can take the beastly jibes) :P
does anyone know what % Whangapoa hill is ?
does anyone have catagorsations for hills around Wellington?

How did Lance get his team to ride their bits off for him? I can't just be money; that only motivates to a certain point. All his team mates know the glory is for the winner, not the team

Drafting up hills: Yes, there is still an advantage drafting up hills, especially above 18km/h. Most of the time these guys are climbing above that speed.

Team cars: Teams have at least 2 team cars. There are 200 odd vehicles in the caravan and 1500 associated with the event (including organisation, media, sponsors, police, etc).

Speeds: There are live feeds available from SRM.com for several of the riders that will give actual speed, heart rate and power. You can also have the rider's live position shown on Google Earth.SRM Telemetry

Hill categorizations: Stilll pretty subjective some of the methodology behind how these are calculated. There wouldn't be too many hills in NZ that would be hors categorie in the European sense of the word. One that springs to mind is the Ohakune Mountain Road (Ohakune to Turoa skifield) - 17kms at 6.2% (elevation gain 1050m) and that's a tough, tough climb.

There was a thread on Wellington hills with gradient percentages mentioned here... Hill thread

Lance's teammates rode for him because that is their job and what they get paid to do. If one of them jeopardised his position by riding for themselves they'd very quickly be out of a job with that team.

john wilcockson's book "23 days in july" details how the hills are categorised. it's based on both length and gradient - as in an HC climb could be say 6km at average 12%, or 16km at average 7%. both ways you can be sure it'll be one tough bastard.

Wonder what Dyers Pass, Hackthorne Rd and Evans Pass would come in at in the great scheme of things?
Soleares Ave (off McCormacks Bay Rd) is a long steep bitch of a climb too, cyclists have got it good here in Chch Is '23 Days In July' worth reading? Anyone got a copy they'd be willing to lend out for a week or so? Cheers guys JIM.

The Port Hills are to the French Alps what the Halswell rollers are to the Port Hills!
Coronet Peak is a great training climb. Not sure of the gradient. Feels like the section of Evans between the 45kph corner and the hairpin... but for 8km. Took me 50mins, an ipod, and the fighting of lots of demons, to get my fat arse up it this last summer.

Hell, I'd die if I was put in front of a Cat 1 climb then.
Correction: If there was a steak pie, slab of Whittaker's and a 6-pack of Stella at the top I think I'd find a way to be strong. I'm all about mental toughness me.

Drafting. I've done a bit of this myself, but I'm wondering about drafting and hills. I see a team drafting their GC guy behind them up some huge climb; does drafting "work" just as well up hills as it does on the flat? Common sense tells me it does, but maybe I just don't get close enough when I'm riding (up hills)?

Team cars. How many of these f*ckers do they have; is it 1 per rider? There seem to be lots.

Can you tell what speed the riders are going at? I find this really frustrating that we don't get an average speed until the finish line.I was also wondering about hill catagorizations. I realise they used to be based on what gear a Citroen 2CV could perambulate up the hill at, but I believe it's more scientific now, based on the gradient of the climb and the distance ?I've "raced" (finished) k2 in 7 hours and they had the hills catagorised, are they they same as le Tour catagorisations ? The k2 catagory 4 and 3's were ok, the 2's and 1's are bad, and the HC before Coromandel is just evil , this prompted me to put a MTB cluster on my road bike (I can take the beastly jibes) :Pdoes anyone know what % Whangapoa hill is ? does anyone have catagorsations for hills around Wellington?

How did Lance get his team to ride their bits off for him? I can't just be money; that only motivates to a certain point. All his team mates know the glory is for the winner, not the team

I done that climb about 5 years ago when it was just shingle on a milazo. Very very steep in some corners. My buddy wants to travel up to the coromandel this year to do the K2, but shag that, i'd rather do the K from Coromandel town to Thames.........